Ordinarily, the requisite gain for a communications session between a cellular base site receiver having limited dynamic range and a given cellular mobile radio transmitter is derived from earlier signal strength measurements taken from previous transmissions from the same mobile transmitter. However, where a history of prior transmissions, does not exist, particularly with the reception of bursty transmissions, establishing the requisite gain for receivers with limited dynamic range represents a formidable challenge.
In wideband Time Division multiplexed Multiple Access (TDMA) systems, an RF channel is time-shared by multiple users who must by synchronized to the system. When bursty transmissions are used for initial access to the system, particularly when they are foreshortened burst transmissions to allow some access tolerance for those accessing the system for the first time, there is no history of prior transmissions from which to derive the requisite gain information. Traditional approaches to this type of problem include fast Automatic Gain Control (AGC) loops (which commonly experience stability difficulties) and long preamble training sequences to allow the AGC loop to stabilize. But in many bursty transmission systems, like the TDMA cellular system presently proposed in Europe, long training sequences are simply not feasible or available.
Nevertheless, it is herein proposed to estimate the expected nominal path loss of the signal and predict the requisite gain from TDMA synchronization information. From the system's synchronization information, the propagation delay (the time between signal transmission by the mobile transmitter and reception by the base site receiver) can be determined. Propagation delay is linearly proportional to distance which, in turn, is the primary determiner of path loss. This path loss is somewhat variable with terrain and can be made part of and calibrated into the gain prediction. Thus, the requisite gain to compensate for the total path loss can be estimated as a function of propagation delay and local propagation conditions. Hence, the dynamic range of the receiver need only be able to cover the residual error of the estimate rather than the entire possible signal attenuation.
This invention has, then, as its object to provide predictive AGC in TDMA systems and overcome these challenges. It has the advantages of being able to utilize receivers with normal dynamic range, maintain brief preamble sequences, assure AGC stability and accommodate local propagation conditions in its path loss prediction.